I got over my first hurdle of learning to drive stick ( i abused a buddy's old bmw) now the next hurdle is coming fast. Since this will be my only car for at least 3 years i'm worried that it will suck in the snow/heavy rain we get in the Tri-State area. I did a search and couldn't get any rel info. I was wondering if people who had to deal with the snow could give me some feedback on how the car acted...I'm almost positive i will invest in snow tires so any info on that will be great too....Thanks

 

You didn't try hard to search, did you? There are limitless threads about winter, winter tires, etc.

Main idea is
1) Z is undrivable on stock tires in winter.
2) If you get good winter tires - you'll be just fine.
3) Blizzaks LM-22 are the best/most popular winter tires.

 

Snow Tires are a MUST...not an option. Like Vlad said, Z is undrivable on stock tires. I have the Dunlop Winter Sport M3's (actually bought them off an ex-G35 owner on this site) and they work great.

 

I had a not so great experience getting stuck in the snow on stock tires......long story short (I was right hubby was wrong) it took me 2 1/2 hours to drive home 10 miles on a road that had less than an inch cover..... bad bad bad in the snow (pittsburgh mountains don't help either). I now have The Blizzak LM-22's on my stock rims for winter time. I didn't have a chance to test them out in the *yummy* Pittsburgh snow, but I am confident they will make quite a difference...

Just remember, it's not yourself you have to worry about driving in the snow, it's all the other idiots out there on the roads (ie. soccer mom's in SUV's who ASSUME since they are driving in 4WD they are invincible---they just don't get the fact that if you are going into a slide on ice it doesn't matter if you are driving a 4x4 or a scooter).

 

I lived in Montana for years and drove plenty rear-wheel drive cars....you MUST get STUDDED snow tires on front and rear - it was just part of living there...HAVE FUN!

 

Just remember, no matter what kind of tires that you get the Z has less then 4 inches of ground clearance.

 

tompal , like many said , dont try to drive your Z on stock tires in snow...
I live in queens and work in NJ , commute about 10 miles each way , there were few days that I just had to call in sick , because there was no way I could control the car on snow... dont take chances , either buy good winter tires , or dont drive it..
do a little search about winter driving in a Z... plenty accident pictures were posted..
good luck